My favorite developers of small Kontakt libraries
Spitfire Labs is an experimental division of Spitfire Audio, one of the most elite developers of Kontakt instruments. The products of their labs’ branch are sometimes born during the development process for one of their commercial libraries, but more often, those are small gems from the personal collection of Spitfire Audio founders who are also composers themselves. Kontakt instruments from Spitfire Labs share similar traits with their much more expensive brethren, which includes quality source instruments, in-depth sampling, and Spitfire Audio’s trademark “imperfection of sound”, which is just one ingredient that makes their products so realistic and playable.
Spitfire Labs has recently gone through a change in concept. Until now, all the proceeds from the sale of Spitfire Labs products were donated to charity, which alone was a good enough reason for their purchase. From now on, however, Spitfire Labs products will be completely free to use and download and they will come with their own dedicated engine.
Sound Dust is a company behind which stands Pendle Poucher, a composer and sound designer from England. His specialty is in-depth sampling and recreation of vintage acoustic, electric and electronic musical instruments. The crown of his eclectic work is most likely his Dulcitone series for Kontakt. Dulcitone itself is an amazing antique acoustic keyboard instrument, developed for use by the missionaries in the 1800s. Its tone combines timbers found in instruments like celesta, glockenspiel, vibraphone, music box, and perhaps even steel drum, all at the same time! Pendle has captured all these traits in great detail by using the binaural approach. Also, all his instruments feature immensely polished and unique GUI plus many features that allow users to easily achieve custom sounds. Sound Dust is among the creme-de-la-creme of Kontakt developers and it isn’t surprising that a company like Spitfire Audio is endorsing Sound Dust in the form of a bundle called Dustbundle.
Embertone has started out as a developer of small and affordable, yet incredibly playable and expressive Kontakt instruments. Over the years, they’ve become the leading force in producing virtual replicas of wind and string instruments in their solo form. Unlike the many other developers, Embertone has never produced large Kontakt libraries which offer dozens of different sounds. Instead, they are always focused on a single instrument, capturing it to the finest detail. Although the price of Embertone’s products is mostly in the affordable category, some of their more recent releases are quite pricey, especially given the fact they are all solo instruments. For me personally, Embertone is the source for quality wind instruments for Kontakt and I have almost all of them in my collection. I must also mention that the company offers several Kontakt freebies, some of which are among the very best free Kontakt instruments out there.
FrozenPlain is run by sound designer and composer Sam Windell. His creations for Kontakt are geared toward ambient, cinematic, and new age music, which is the very reason why I’ve noticed them in the first place. Although the sound sources used in these libraries sometimes originate in rather humble things, such as terracotta flower pots, plucked and hammered guitar strings, and kitchen utensils, thanks to the flexible GUI and complex FX section that can rival those found in products from Soundiron and Impact Soundworks, you can get very creative and achieve fantastic results.
This relatively young company was founded by a small team of sound designers and composers. Their first product was “Mountains”, a very small but fantastic Kontakt library dedicated to acoustic and synthetic string sounds, that is still one of the most popular products featured on Kontakt Hub and Sampleism. Since then, they’ve released new products: Resona, Autumn Choirs, and the updated version of Mountains. The GUI and the FX section were greatly improved, and Resona also offers many inspiring sound sources. I frequently use Mountains and Resona libraries in my projects, and I’m looking forward to future products from this team.